Tough Guy is book three in Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series, set in the world of professional hockey. While I wasn’t as utterly caught up in the romance here as I was in the previous book (Heated Rivalry – which made my Best of 2019 list), I nonetheless enjoyed the novel, and appreciated the way…
Graveyard Shift is book three in Jenn Burke’s original and entertaining Not Yet Dead series of paranormal romances, and is a satisfying and poignant send off for Wes, Hudson and their found-family of witches, vampires and other supernatural beings. While each book in the set could work as a standalone, I’d advise reading them in…
Josh Yu’s father hasn’t spoken to him in nearly two decades, but Josh has a brainwave: to break through to the retired math teacher, he’ll throw the ultimate Pi Day party for the staff of his app development company, and invite his parents. Sarah Winters, who owns the sweet and savory pie shop Happy As…
Sometimes, an artist emerges to breathe fresh life into a classic and the reader is left agog with delight. Granted, there have been so many retellings of Pride and Prejudice released over the last few years I can barely scrabble to the top of the hill of them to see ahead to the Sense and…
Sparks fly when a liberated Muslim woman meets a deeply conservative Muslim man in Ayesha at Last, a contemporary retelling of Pride and Prejudice. He watches for her every morning. Khalid Mirza’s view from his breakfast bar occasionally includes a fascinating glimpse of a woman in a purple hijab carrying a red ceramic mug as…
Given it’s set in the multicultural city of Toronto, it’s no surprise that Farah Heron’s début, The Chai Factor, delves into some serious issues such as racism and cultural and gender equality. Yet even so the author maintains some nice comedic flair and tells a sweet opposites attract romance making this an enjoyable read from…
Jenn Burke’s Not Dead Yet earned a place on my keeper shelf earlier this year for many reasons, not least of which were the great storytelling, excellent worldbuilding, memorable characters, snappy dialogue and unusual premise. Wes Cooper was murdered in 1933 by his lover Michael, but was resurrected by Michael’s sister – a witch. Somehow,…
After her cousin’s wedding, dedicated singleton Iris Chin becomes the target of family matchmaking. She prefers one-night stands, like the incredibly hot one she had with Alex Kwong. But when Iris’s engineering job lands her on a site where Alex is the construction supervisor, love ‘em and leave ‘em isn’t possible. Despite an oversimplified heroine,…
I was really looking forward to this book with its promise of cross-cultural highs and lows, an exploration of the immigrant experience, and a look at traditional arranged marriages in modern society. Unfortunately, it ultimately failed to live up to its pledge because the heroine quite sank the story. Raina is biracial, having a barely-there…
For some reason, I’ve been gravitating towards paranormal romances lately, most often ones featuring characters involved in law enforcement, which was the immediate appeal of Jenn Burke’s Not Dead Yet. It’s the first in a new series in which one of the protagonists is, as the title suggests, Not Dead. Although he’s Not Alive either,…